Marketing Strategies 100 | SunMatrix Ramble

Dali Museum iPhone App

To build awareness for “The Dali Museum’s” fantastical new building, ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners developed a customized picture-editing app that created dreamy surrealist overlays over photos.

With zero budget, they turned to Hipstamatic to help bring the smartphone app to life. The team at Hipstamatic liked the idea so much that they waived their fees and pledged to donate the proceeds from the app to the museum. Plus, their 1.2 million loyal followers provided the critical mass needed to reach the general public.

In the first couple days after the release, the Hipstamatic site crashed due to extremely high traffic. The blogosphere bubbled with over 19,000 mentions and in the first month alone 50,000 people purchased the app.

Why the “zero budget” part mattered

Most museum awareness efforts struggle with the same constraint. Great content, limited reach. This solved it by building the campaign inside an existing distribution engine. Here, a distribution engine means a platform with a large active audience and a built-in habit of sharing. Because Hipstamatic already had the audience, the use case, and the sharing behavior, the museum could turn a niche cultural launch into something that traveled through everyday iPhone photography. The business intent was simple: make the new building culturally visible far beyond the museum’s owned audience.

Extractable takeaway: When budgets are thin, do not start by buying reach. Start by embedding the idea in a tool, platform, or habit that already has distribution.

For museums, destinations, and other cultural institutions, the scalable challenge is usually not creating content but accessing a behavior people already repeat.

The real question is not how to advertise the building, but how to turn public participation into distribution.

The smarter move is to build the awareness mechanic inside a behavior people already want to perform and share.

What to borrow if you are marketing a place or institution

Turn the subject into a tool. A museum became a creator utility, not a brochure.
Partner for distribution, not just production. Hipstamatic brought the audience and the habit.
Make sharing the default output. Every edited photo is a piece of media that carries the idea forward.

A few fast answers before you act

What was the Dali Museum iPhone app?

A customized picture-editing app that applied surrealist, dream-like overlays to users’ photos to build awareness for The Dali Museum’s new building.

Who created it?

Goodby Silverstein & Partners developed the app concept and execution.

How did they launch it with zero budget?

They partnered with Hipstamatic, which waived fees and pledged to donate app proceeds to the museum.

What did Hipstamatic contribute beyond technology?

Distribution. Their 1.2 million followers provided the critical mass to reach beyond the museum’s natural audience.

What were the early results?

Hipstamatic’s site crashed from high traffic, the campaign generated over 19,000 mentions, and 50,000 people purchased the app in the first month.

Lexus GS: NFC-Enabled Print Ad in WIRED

A print ad sits inside WIRED, but it behaves like a link. Hold an NFC-enabled phone (NFC is short for near-field communication) to the page and a Lexus GS demo opens on your device, without scanning a code or typing a URL.

Brands like Mercedes Benz, Reporters Without Borders, Volkswagen etc have all been working hard to create clutter breaking and engaging print ads.

In this latest example of an interactive print ad, WIRED magazine and Lexus have teamed up to create what they describe as the first mass-produced print ad embedded with an NFC tag. The ad, reported as appearing in 500,000 subscriber copies of WIRED’s April issue, lets readers with NFC-enabled phones access a demo of the Lexus GS 2013’s Enform App Suite simply by holding their phone up to the ad.

A tap replaces the scan

The mechanism is straightforward. An NFC tag is embedded into the page, and the phone reads it when placed close to the printed area. That single “tap” launches a mobile experience that can demonstrate features and apps without requiring camera alignment or extra steps. Because the tap collapses multiple steps into one, the handoff feels effortless.

In global publishing and automotive marketing, bridging print to mobile works best when the handoff is faster than habit, and simple enough to do without thinking.

Why this matters for print innovation

Most interactive print relies on behavior people already associate with effort, like scanning codes or typing. NFC flips that. The interaction feels like “just place phone here”, which is closer to natural curiosity than task completion.

Extractable takeaway: NFC works in print when it replaces effort with instinct. Design the handoff as a single tap that proves value immediately.

Definition-tightening: NFC tags in print are typically passive. The page is not powered. The phone provides the energy and reads a short payload that triggers a destination on the device.

What Lexus is really buying

This is a modern product story told through a legacy medium. The GS positioning leans into connected experiences, so demonstrating an app suite through a connected print interaction reinforces the message at the exact moment of discovery.

The real question is whether the tap reinforces the product promise at the moment of discovery.

Steal this pattern for interactive print

Design for one gesture. If it takes more than a tap, many readers will not try.
Reward instantly. The first screen after the tap should feel like a payoff, not a loading screen.
Make the print do real work. Print should provide context and desire. Mobile should provide depth and demonstration.
Plan for non-NFC readers. If the print idea relies on a capability not everyone has, ensure there is still a clear alternate path.

A few fast answers before you act

What makes this WIRED ad “interactive”?

The page contains an embedded NFC tag. Tapping an NFC-enabled phone to the ad launches a Lexus GS mobile demo experience.

Why use NFC instead of a QR code?

NFC removes the camera step. A tap is faster and tends to feel easier than scanning, which can increase participation.

Do you need a special app to use an NFC print ad?

Typically no. If NFC is enabled, the phone reads the tag and opens the linked mobile experience using standard system behavior.

What is the key benefit for the advertiser?

A lower-friction bridge from print attention to a measurable digital demo, without breaking the reading flow as aggressively as “go type this URL”.

What is the biggest execution risk?

Compatibility and clarity. If readers do not have NFC, or do not understand where to tap, the interaction collapses back into a normal print ad.

Billboard Brasil: On Hold Jam Session

You call a magazine subscription line and get put on hold. Instead of elevator music, you get a prompt that turns your phone keypad into an instrument, so you can jam along while you wait.

Turning hold time into play time

Billboard Magazine features the best of pop music and entertainment in Brazil and, as they frame it, waiting on hold is one of the most boring music moments ever. So their ad agency AlmapBBDO creates the “On Hold Jam Session”, which makes the moment into a fun interactive experience and reflects the magazine’s concept of music and entertainment.

To make the magazine subscribers aware of this new on-hold feature, they send direct mail explaining how one could jam along with their phone buttons when they are put on hold at Billboard Magazine.

Why the mechanic is so effective

The mechanism is simple. Use the tones behind the phone keypad to trigger musical parts, so every button press feels like progress. It replaces passive waiting with viewer control, meaning the caller can shape what they hear in real time. That changes the emotional quality of the same time slice.

Extractable takeaway: If you cannot remove a wait, give people one simple action that produces immediate feedback, so the time feels shorter and more personal.

Definition-tightening: this works because phone buttons generate distinct audio tones that can be mapped to beats, riffs, or samples. The caller does not need instructions beyond “press keys to play”.

In subscription media and entertainment brands, turning unavoidable waiting into a participatory moment is a direct way to make the brand feel lived, not just consumed.

What Billboard is really buying

This is not a content campaign in the usual sense. It is a brand behavior demonstration. If Billboard is about music culture, the brand should show up even in the most unmusical moment, customer service hold time. The real question is whether your brand shows up when the customer is stuck, not only when the customer is browsing.

It also reframes a service weakness into a memorable touchpoint. The caller is more likely to tolerate the wait, and more likely to talk about the experience afterward.

Patterns for turning dead time into play

Target dead time. Waiting, queuing, loading, and holding are underused attention windows.
Make the first interaction obvious. One prompt, one action, instant feedback.
Turn friction into a feature. If the wait cannot be removed, redesign what the wait feels like.
Promote it with a physical cue. Direct mail works here because it sets expectation before the call happens.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the “On Hold Jam Session” idea?

It turns phone hold time into a playable music moment by letting callers create beats or melodies using their keypad while they wait.

Why does interactivity matter when someone is on hold?

Because it converts passive waiting into active participation, which reduces boredom and makes the time feel shorter.

How do phone buttons become a music controller?

Each keypad press produces a distinct tone that can be mapped to sounds. The system listens for the tones and triggers matching audio parts.

What is the business benefit beyond “fun”?

A better service experience, higher memorability, and a stronger brand association, plus increased word of mouth because the moment is easy to describe.

What is the main execution risk?

If the audio feedback is delayed or confusing, callers will abandon the interaction and it becomes just another frustrating hold.